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I totally lost faith in BMW

One year ago I purchased a brand-new BMW F 650 GS at an official BMW dealership. The piece of my desire was a special edition in the color ?Sonnengelb? (Sun-Yellow) and was not in stock at the dealership.
So I had to place a factory order for that bike and took delivery a few weeks later at the dealership where it was ordered as the original owner.
I do not drive the bike very often (about 500 mls a year) but I was shocked today while I took the bike into winter hibernation and took out the battery for that reason.

The airbox cover had to come off to get access to the battery and on the inside there is a sticker stating the original color ?Biarritzblau? (Biarritz-Blue). It was the first time I took parts off the bike. The whole part including the Biarritz-Blue sticker was repainted in ?Sun-Yellow?. I discovered the same on other parts on the bike which are supposed to be Sun-Yellow in the first place but are also repainted from Blue to Yellow! Unbelievable!!! They did not even take away the original color-stickers?

That really is naughty! I would think it happened at the factory because the stickers look identical, so my guess us that they just pulled some blue parts, oversprayed them yellow and added the new color ID stickers.

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.

That's terrible! I assume that the registration lists yellow as the production color which would lead me to believe that the BMW factory is like Las Vegas; knowledge of what happens in the factory stays in the factory. In the past, they have acknowledged that body work or repainted body panels on autos any time before delivery still qualify as an original "undamaged" new auto. Even though I think this is fraud, I would also assume that this is standard procedure among all of the manufacturers. I bet our eyes would bulge if we tested all the new cars on the lot with paint thickness gauges.

I am thinking that too and besides applicable legal regulations this should not be the way a customer should be treated by a "Premium" manufacturer. I am totally disappointed and I am also looking forward to the response from the dealership and BMW because I confronted them both with this situation.

This is inconceivable. One would think the factory at minimum would sand off the paint and repaint it and then only stick on one set of stickers. Perhaps they only re-painted that particular battery cover because they had an extra one in blue? Even still...ridiculously arrogant to just stick on a new sticker over the old one.

No, I am not working for BMW, I never did! I am only a loyal BMW customer who purchased about 30 cars and 5 bikes from them over the last 32 years. With all the experience regarding the Z8 and now with this bike, I should probably say: ?I was a loyal BMW customer?!

I am thinking that too and besides applicable legal regulations this should not be the way a customer should be treated by a "Premium" manufacturer. I am totally disappointed and I am also looking forward to the response from the dealership and BMW because I confronted them both with this situation.

Hello Jurgen - curious if they responded. Best regards to you and Sylvi.

Hello Jurgen - curious if they responded. Best regards to you and Sylvi.

Hi Dirk,

BMW offered to replace all the repainted parts, an extended warranty for my bike and a weekend in Berlin with a tour of the BMW Motorcycle Plant. I accepted the offer and I am looking forward to the weekend in Berlin!

That's wonderful news Jurgen. I am sure that it was the work of one idiot who painted the parts of your bike and that it was not a "company policy". Hopefully the way BMW dealt with it, will help in rebuilding your faith in this wonderful brand. Enjoy your weekend in Berlin. We were there last month on tour with the BMW vintage club. Very interesting city where so much stuff has happened the past 100 years or so.

So, here is the end of the story! We were invited to the BMW motorcycle plant in Berlin but to be honest, it was disappointing! We had an almost 2 hour tour guidet by students from the local University but did see almost nothing. A few modern machines were manufacturing the crankshafts and we saw a lot of finished parts from e.g. Italy in racks (plastic parts, exhaust systems, seats etc.).

I finally got my painted parts after 3 months waiting and I was absolutely surprised. I thought that I had to wait because the parts had to be painted first but I was mistaken once again. The sticker on the parts showed a production date from 2011 and the reason for the delay was the new BMW distribution center for spare parts in Slubice, Poland. This new distribution center for BMW parts (also for the Z8!) is obviously cheaper to run in comparison to Dingolfing, Germany, and is operated by an independent corporation. The shareholders will appreciate this…

On top of this BMW could not remember the promised extended warranty for my bike…

My BMW bike is on the market now and I switched to something more "traditional"…